There are many different types of applications on your Windows computer that enable you to perform various tasks. Some of these applications, such as Internet Explorer and Outlook Express are installed along with your operating system and some of them, such as Microsoft Office and Antivirus utility can be installed later if you choose to add them. Additionally, there are a few applications that usually come preinstalled, especially on branded computers, which may have tools and utilities to help you maintain the PC.

Application errors occur when certain conditions are not met while you run one of the applications on your PC. For a better understanding, let us have a look at some examples:

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When an error message is displayed on your computer, you can use it as the first step to identify the underlying problem. However, slow computer problems rarely display an error message and there can be several different reasons that may cause your computer to slow down. You can check my other blog post Common PC Errors and how you can Fix them to find some tips on common pc errors.

Let us now have a look at some of these common causes and what you can do to get rid of them and perform computer fixes.

The first and the most common cause of slow computer problems is malware infections. A sudden and drastic deterioration in your computer’s performance usually indicates that a virus or spyware has infiltrated your computer. Many of these malicious programs replicate quickly and fill your hard disk with loads of malicious information. You may even start receiving error messages that may prevent you from getting any work done on the system. To prevent these problems from affecting the performance of your computer, you need to seek help of good antivirus and antispyware tools.

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Common PC Errors and How You Can Fix Them

PC errors are not unknown to computer users. These errors may occur due to several reasons and cause unnecessary frustrations and troubles. However, if you know your way around them, you may be able to recover from these problems yourself and save yourself a lot of trouble.

To help you understand more about computer problems, we are going to cover a couple of common PC errors & problems and the methods that you may use to resolve them.

Error Message: “Error 1304. Error writing to the file File_name and location. Verify that you have access to that directory.”

This error message may appear on your computer during the installation of Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Office XP, or Microsoft Works suit. This error usually occurs if the CD/DVD from which you are performing the installation is dirty or the CD/DVD drive on your computer is not configured correctly. You may also encounter the error due to damaged or outdated Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) installation.

As problems with the CD/DVD disk or drive are the main cause of this error message, we first need to check them for problems. For instance, you must ensure that your CD/DVD is disk is not dirty or scratched. If it is, try cleaning the disk or try to get hold of another disk to perform the installation. Also, try to check the disk in another CD/DVD drive. If your disk works in another drive, then the drive on your computer is quite likely to have problems. You may try to update the drivers of this drive, or get it checked for physical problems. At times, you may have duplicate drives installed on the PC. The existence of these duplicate drives may also generate error 1304. If this happens, you must uninstall all drives using the Device Manager, and restart your PC. Because CD/DVD drives are usually Plug and Play, your drive should install automatically when the PC restarts. If you think the error is due to damaged or outdated MDAC, you must download and install the latest MDAC from the Microsoft MSDN Web site. If nothing works, and if you have access to a network, try to perform the installation from another location over the network.

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